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In the late 20's, early 30's, East Texas was deep in the greatest
depression that the United States has known. Times were bad everywhere,
and East Texas was no exception. Everyone was looking for something,
anything, to happen that would help to dig out from underneath
it all. Then a name popped up.....Dad Joiner with his oil well
drilling over in Rusk County, near the Smith County line. This
was big news that was floating around from gossip to gossip.....the
search for oil. Then it happened. Dad Joiner brought in his well
and launched the great East Texas oil field, bringing with it
an unprecedented boom to this depressed farming area. Almost overnight
East Texas became the "action capital" of America, and people
by the thousands began to converge on America's newest oil field.
Everyone wanted his share of the pie....roughnecks, pipeliners,
rig builders, teamsters, pipefitters, lease brokers, engineers,
geologists, anyone with an idea of how to cash in on the sudden
boom.

Along with this influx of thousands of people, commodities became
a sudden premium. Food, housing, supplies of all sorts were instantly
needed. Buildings began to spring up everywhere, businesses were
booming. Fame and wealth came to some almost overnight, farmers
quit talking about crops and cattle and began talking leasing
and royalties. People opened up their homes and took in boarders.
This new boom left no one hungry. No matter what "walk of life"
you were from, you were able to profit from the new black gold
in some way.

Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner was born in Lauderdale County, Ala.
in 1860. Over the years he had developed an avid interest in drilling
to find oil. The Geologists in 1930 had acquired much knowledge,
but this taught them that not all oil is found on top of a structure....that
you had to drill deep inside the earths structure to pull it out.
"Dad" leased 10,000 acres of land in Rusk and Smith counties in
1927-1929. One of these leases just happened to be the 975 acre
farm of Daisy Bradford. "Dad" started drilling the first hole
in August of 1927....but then abandoned it in Feb. of 1928 at
the depth of 1.098 feet. He drilled a second time....but then
abandoned it in 1929 at the depth of 2,518 feet. So he tried once
again...a third time....and we all know what they say....the third
time is the charm. The #3, Daisy Bradford, in January of 1930
was drilled to 1,530 feet and by October 3, 1930, with a loan
from Daisy Bradford for $5,000, it had reached a depth of 3,592
feet when oil showed. On October 5, 1930, with a crowd of 4,000
landowners, leaseholders, stockholders, creditors and spectators
standing around watching all day, the oil began to spurt......oil
that put the well in the class of 300 barrels a day.

October 20, 1930, Ed W. Bateman and others spudded the Lou Della
Crim well in the Eldridge Sevier Survey, in Rusk County, about
4 miles southwest of Kilgore......and about 10 miles due north
of the Daisy Bradford. On December 28, 1930, this well was drilled
in, flowing 308 barrels of oil in 20 minutes and got a potential
rating of 15,000 barrels of oil per day.

February 1931 the well of the Arkansas Fuel Oil Company was drilled
by Fosters and Jefferys. Others interested in this well were F.K.
Lathrop, B.A. Skipper, W.W. Leckner, Ray Hubbard of Dallas and
John E. Farrell & W.A. Moncrief of Ft. Worth. It was drilled
on the Lathrop farm northwest of Longview in Gregg County and
was completed with a potential of 17,346 barrels of oil per day.

The #1 Ashbey was drilled one mile west of the Daisy Bradford
well in Rusk County. This made the 4 discovery wells of the East
Texas field and they were all completed in the Woodbine Formation.

By February 9, 1031, 4 main pipelines had been completed. The
Panola & Rusk Pipeline,Iinland Waterways, Petroleum Marketing
and The Magnolia Pipeline from Arkansas to Neches, Texas.

November 30, 1930, "Dad" sold 400 acres of his Rusk County holdings
to H.L. Hunt for $1,250,000. February 1931, Humble purchased the
lease on which the Crim well was drilled for $2,100,000. Three
of their early managers of the Humble Pipeline Company were Cap
Foley, George Lee and Hick Hensley.

In Kilgore, the block of buildings where the bank was located
( Browns Drug, Saxton Grocery & the bank) were removed in
order to drill 24 oil wells on one city block. This became known
as the richest block in the world.

Sam Ross later became on of the substantial oil interest owners
in the East Texas field, being responsible and assisted Joe Zappa,
Sam Dorfman, Sam Sklar and Sonell Felsenthal in developing their
Hughey Ross Lease which they had bought in the early days and
had come to East Texas seeking their fortune. Sam Ross was instrumental
in financing the drilling of this lease by making a loan of $7500
per well turnkey and to receive back from the sale of the oil
$15,000 which looked like a tremendous deal. Each of these wells
have produced hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of oil and
played a great part in the development of the Delta Drilling Company
which is one of America's outstanding drilling organizations.

For Kilgore, the Laird's, Ben & Shack, were instrumental
in helping organize the Kilgore College, along with Roy
Laird who was Mayor of the City of Kilgore. He also had a large
part in the development of the Laird Memorial Hospital. There
were Malcom & John T. Crim who ran the Crim Mercantile Store.
John & Ben Peterson who were outstanding farmers in the area.
They expanded their ranch holdings into Harrison County. After
their death, it was sold to O.W. Fox, and in drilling it for Lignite,
it was found to contain substantial deposits.

There was quite a flurry of lease buying in the city of Kilgore.
When the Miss Lou Della Crim well came in it was a town of 800.
One week later the population had swelled to 8,000. You could
buy a loaf of bread or a quart of milk for 5 cents, a dozen eggs
for 12 cents and you could chow down on 6 hamburgers for a quarter.
Then on the other hand, if you wanted to take a real bath, it
would cost you 50 cents. People lived in tents, in their cars,
even in cardboard boxes shaped into shelters.

One particular place of interest was Mattie's Ballroom. There
were plenty of ladies to entertain you at that time. Before the
end of the prohibition, while Mattie did not sell any liquor or
was in no way involved with illegal liquor, there was plenty of
it available and some good homebrew was made on most every corner
around the area.

In late 1930, early 1931, the rain in East Texas was relentless.
During the month of June it rained non stop for 30 days. The Sabine
River was out of its banks, roads were complete washed out between
Longview & Kilgore. In order to get to Henderson, it was necessary
to leave Longview and go to Marshall, down Hwy. 43, into Tatum
and back to Henderson. Wagons, teams, pipe, oilfield trucks,
any and all equipment was in the mud up to the bed of a wagon.
Some trucks were stuck so deep in the mud so deep that only the
tops of the radiators could be seen on some of the big oilfield
trucks.

The Gregg County Court House lawn was a sight to behold at times.
With all the influx of the thousands of people flowing into the
area, the jail was far from being big enough. That was the time
that Gregg County had the famous picket line on the court house
lawn.........they had to handcuff the prisoners and chain them
to the picket line.

The County Clerk, A.G. Dush Shaw, employed a corps of Deputies
& Abstractors to help with land transactions; and lawyers
and stenographers overran the court house. County maps were almost
as common as handkerchiefs, and probably used more.
By December 31, 1931, East Texas had 3732 wells completed and
in the next year the figure rose by 5652 wells. In April
of 1931 the Railroad Commission issued its first order restricting
production of oil. The East Texas field was now the state proving
ground for experimental laws and methods. As one law was cast
aside, a new one was enacted; as one regulation was invalidated,
a new one was drawn up; as one weakness was remedied, a new one
was found.

By the close of 1931, the Joinerville, Kilgore & Longview
areas produced 107,727,912 barrels of oil for a daily average
of 295,145 barrels. When "Dad" Joiner's well was brought in, oil
was $1.10 a barrel. One year later it was 25 cents a barrel. This
necessitated some kind of control. Conversation was a problem
so Article No.V was passed for the sole purpose of conserving
oil and gas and preventing the avoidable waste thereof within
reasonable limitations.

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